School Network Staff Bilingual Regional Manager of Youth and Family Services
Job Description
THE CHALLENGE
Are you up for the work as a bilingual regional manager of family and youth services that is both difficult and worthwhile? Do you want to make a positive, lasting difference in children’s lives?
OVERVIEW OF ROLE
STRIVE Preparatory Schools (STRIVE) is a Denver-based community of K-12 public charter schools that challenges every student to strive for college and thrive throughout life by helping them develop the knowledge, skills and confidence necessary to succeed in college and beyond. The manager of family and youth services will help students as they face an assortment of mental health challenges in our STRIVE Prep Schools. This position will support multiple STRIVE Prep Schools across three regions of Denver. The manager of family and youth services will work directly with children and adolescents and families; support students with mental and behavioral health needs by providing crisis counseling and skill instruction and implementing safety support plans; and work collaboratively with parents, teachers, and community supports to support children’s success to ultimately help students thrive at home, in school, and in life.
THE MUST HAVES
Do the following must haves resonate with how you are wired and demonstrable in your unique talents and experiences? If so, we invite you to apply and can’t wait to learn more about you!
- You are a critical thinker: Part of what makes the work so challenging—and rewarding—is the fact that you will be constantly encountered with unique situations that will require you to be flexible while solutions-oriented. That’s why critical thinking skills are very important as a manager of family and youth services. After identifying the nature of the problems experienced by their students, the manager of family and youth services uses critical and creative thinking to develop practical solutions. The manager of family and youth services uses logic, problem-solving, analysis, kindness, and creativity to identify the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches and find a solution for each case. He/She/They must make important decisions and solve problems based on a thorough understanding of the student’s needs and situation, the available resources, and applicable law and policies. Without this important skill, a manager of family and youth services might miss clues, overlook opportunities, or act on personal bias.
- You have a developed sense of empathy: Understanding others intellectually, culturally, and emotionally is important. Empathy is the ability to imagine yourself in someone else’s situation, and then be able to understand what that person may be experiencing. Empathizing is both an intellectual and emotional process that makes it far easier to understand and help others work through their problems and develop their deficits. Having empathy helps the manager of family and youth services develop strong relationships with the students and families and determine the best possible solution based on their unique experiences and circumstances.
- You are an effective communicator: The manager of family and youth services must be able to communicate in many different ways and with many different people every day. You will need to be able to express yourself with clarity to a wide variety of people in a diversity of contexts and having strong written and verbal communication skills are an absolute must. Good communication skills help the manager of family and youth services have difficult conversations with people in the midst of challenging life circumstances and emotional stress, while staying calm. Important communication skills that show you are engaged in the conversation and genuinely care about hearing what the other person has to say are validation, affirmation, and active listening. The manager of family and youth services needs to exhibit their interpersonal skills in order to work effectively with other team members. In addition, as the voice of their students, the manager of family and youth servicesroutinely advocates on behalf of the individuals, groups, and families they serve. Advocacy involves speaking out and acting in the best interest of others.
- You are organized: The manager of family and youth services is often required to deal with busy schedules, heavy caseloads and large amounts of paperwork. Successfully managing and prioritizing the logistical aspects of the job can help you maximize the amount of time you’ll have on your schedule to provide meaningful services and supports to your students and families. The ability to plan, organize, and prioritize which work is required to be done in which order is extremely important. Related to organizational skills, the manager of family and youth services must also have strong time-management practices.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
Targeted Tiered Model of Youth and Family Interventions, Services and Supports:
- Obtains and processes information from campus mental health provider; Performs intakes and assessments of children and youth in crisis to determine the level of needs and appropriate safety planning
- Uses skill-building strategies through direct and indirect service methods in a small group or individual settings to teach students effective, positive behaviors, such as coping skills, self-regulation and self-monitoring, planning/organization, impulse control, empathy, and healthy decision-making
- Responsible for providing intensive support, consultation, counseling and crisis intervention services to children (e.g., individual, small group) and families in the school setting (may use components of SFBT, DBT, and CBT in the work and should have experience and knowledge with trauma-informed practices and grief counseling)
- Empowers youth and family to share responsibility in the goals and objectives outlined in the safety plan
- Conducts family engagement and psychoeducational activities (i.e., family learning sessions, meet and greets, home visits)
- Collaborates with the campus school mental health provider and/or school staff to create and maintain a variety of services to support all students’ attainment of academic, social-emotional, and behavioral goals
- Maintains working knowledge of community resources and provides assistance and support to families enabling them to access community resources
- Collaborates with families and community providers to develop student interventions/action and intervention plans/safety plans
Preventative and Responsive Crisis Services
- Collaborates with school personnel, parents, students, and community resources to provide competent mental health support during and after crisis situations and support network crisis responses as needed and follow ERCM network response team procedures
- Conducts suicide risk reviews and self-injury inventory process according to training and best practices (e.g., follow protocol, inform parents, provide recommendations and referrals to community services, and often provide follow up counseling and support at school)
- Conducts threat response system process according to training and best practices (e.g., follow protocol, evaluation and classification of the threat, appropriate response, and intervention, including notification and involvement of parents and a written action and intervention plan)
Professionalism
- Demonstrates personal integrity and maintains high professional and ethical standards practice in ways that are consistent with ethical, professional, and legal standards and regulations; engage in lifelong learning and formulate personal plans for ongoing professional growth
- Fulfills departmental/administrative responsibilities and expectations; uses supervision and mentoring for effective practice; access, evaluate, and utilize information sources and technology in ways that safeguard and enhance the quality of services and responsible record keeping; participates in STRIVE Prep Summer Training as well as professional development and training throughout the school year; and assists administrators, teachers, and other school personnel, and parents in understanding and adhering to legislation and regulations relevant to regular education and special education
OUR ASPIRING MANAGERS OF YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVICES:
- Consciously choose to serve and transform the lives of school-age scholars by joining a team of educators who will do whatever it takes in a turnaround environment to support scholars in gaining access to college.
- Highly invest themselves in constant growth and reflection as educators and professionals.
- Be a tireless advocate for your students
- Approach every day with unapologetic high expectations, persistence and a sense of humor.
- (Required) Speak Spanish and have experience working with bilingual students and families.
- Dedicate themselves to the educational success of all students, not some students.
- Bring enthusiasm, professionalism, and positivity to their interactions with students and our adult community.
- Assume the best in others and are willing to have courageous conversations in order to do what is best for students.
- Work hard and approach challenges as opportunities for improvement.
- Set high expectations for themselves and others and a willingness to hold themselves and others to those expectations.
- Strive for cultural competence practice, are willing to learn more about the culture of the child through the child and family, and always work from a strength-based perspective.
- Member of STRIVE Prep’s Mental Health Team
- Protect time for self-care, fortify your strengths and capacities, and seek support through one’s family, friends, and broader professional community
MINIMUM EDUCATION/REQUIREMENTS/SKILLS
- Master’s Degree in related field of behavioral health (e.g., social work, counseling, psychology)
- Strongly preferred to hold a license LPC, LMFT, LCSW or comparable license
- Be bilingual in English/Spanish
- Experience with children and adolescents in mental health or related field in inpatient, residential, crisis prevention, juvenile corrections, or other similar settings strongly preferred.
- Ability to facilitate group activities. Capable of high quality documentation. Ability to teach and work with children and adolescents with mental health needs. Training and demonstrated skills in crisis intervention.
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
- Competitive compensation package and annual performance-based raises
- Participation in the Colorado PERA retirement program, including a PERA 401k option
- Funding of 100% of individual medical benefits and a wide range of insurance plans
- Approximately three weeks of summer vacation and eight days of paid time off annually
- Transportation stipend $500/year
DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION
STRIVE works to make a college prep education for all students in our community the norm, rather than the exception. We are committed to building and sustaining a diverse team by maintaining hiring and recruiting processes that are free from bias and seek to provide each candidate with a unique and equitable opportunity for employment. STRIVE is an equal opportunity employer and actively encourages applications from people of all backgrounds.
Our culture of inclusion is rooted in the belief that when we create the conditions that align …
- Your unique gifts (Bring your full self, skills/knowledge, & unique lens on the work)
- Your purpose/desire for impact(What challenges do you most want to tackle?)
- The organization’s needs(STRIVE’s strategic goals and value we seek from this role)
… then you will have the opportunity every day to unleash your genius–individually and collectively with your colleagues–to ensure our students are Learning to Change the World. We create these conditions with intentional, strengths-based coaching through an equity and inclusion lens, and a culture that leverages the rich diversity of our team to inform the work and achieve breakthrough results for our students.
